TaxExact™ is expanding as we continue to grow our footprint in the marketplace! We recently added a talented accountant to our team as a Research and Development Coordinator. Lisa Sill is passionate about getting it right…more on that in a minute.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Lisa and learn what brought her into a career in public accounting, and how her experience as a tax preparer and reviewer led her to such a unique position in a tax software company. Here’s what Lisa had to say.
TE: What led you to public accounting in the first place?
Lisa: Is ‘I liked math’ a bad answer? Honestly, I really enjoyed my accounting courses in college. I knew I wanted to go into accounting at that point, so I took an internship with an organization that did free tax preparation for lower income individuals. Once I graduated, I interviewed with several firms but settled on the one I went to work for because of the culture. I could see that I was going to be part of a team and that my work mattered. I guess the values just aligned with mine.
TE: When you say that your ‘work mattered,’ what do you mean?
Lisa: I came from the firm that originally developed TaxExact™ (way before it looks like it does now), and I learned how to use it to review returns soon after I started as a new accountant working for that firm. It kept me interested and curious, because I found my own mistakes quickly before ever getting to final review. TaxExact™ challenged me to learn more and understand the tax code vs putting numbers in tax software boxes that I didn’t necessarily always understand. I gained confidence, and it felt good to think critically. Getting it right for every client mattered to me.
TE: You mentioned you were an early user of TaxExact™. Did that play any role in your move to the company?
Lisa: I was one of the early users of TaxExact™- it taught me how to review. I couldn’t imagine reviewing a return without it. I don’t even do my own taxes without checking it through TaxExact™ even though my return is simple. I’ve caught silly mistakes on my own return with TaxExact™.
As a new accountant, you learn from the people around you. After entering data into tax software, you start to question and become curious about why. I think that was accelerated for me by using TaxExact™. For instance, does the box need to be checked for calculating a higher education tax credit only if a student is full time? I wanted to know the answer. After researching, I learned that you don’t need to be full-time, you just have a be an undergraduate. I also learned that I have an underlying drive for doing the due diligence to make sure that tax returns are right. That’s what led to my curiosity and research.
As far as whether being an early user played a role in my move to work for the company, I had the opportunity to help with adding new calculations to the early version. It was something that interested me, and I wanted to spend more time on it.
I discovered that I have a real passion for research, specifically discovering new information and translating it into something usable to tax accountants.
When you are doing a tax return, there are a lot of things that are assumed, things you don’t question. I actually like researching and learning the ‘why’ behind how something needs to be reported.
TE: Lisa, what advice do you have for firms who are trying to move the technical 1040 review downstream so that the final review just becomes cursory?
Lisa: Well, to start, I learned how to review using TaxExact™. I honestly can’t imagine ticking and tieing everything. It takes so little time to create a completely independent expectation, and it helps first level reviewers or even preparers catch mistakes that you made or that someone else made instantly. And because you catch them, you think about it next time. Like on my own return, I know myself and my situation better than anyone, but I still do an independent expectation, so I have the peace of mind that I didn’t make a mistake. Getting it right matters, and TaxExact™ gives me that confidence.
